The Howdy Neighbor Technique

It’s difficult to believe for those of us under a certain age, but people used to be nice to each other.

It’s true.

Back in the day, people would actually return their shopping carts to the designated areas. Sure, it required them to walk an extra ten feet. But the alternative was leaving their carts in the middle of parking lots where they might roll and hit other vehicles, and what kind of jerk would do such a thing?

Back in the day, people would stop what they’re doing and make eye contact when someone was speaking to them. The idea of continuing to look down at your smartphone and playing “Angry Birds” while someone tried to talk to you was preposterous. For one thing, smartphones didn’t exist at the time. But secondly, only an unfortunate soul with no manners would do such a thing.

Back in the day, guys didn’t sag their pants half-way down to their knees because oh my goodness what’s wrong with you no one wants to see that.

Granted, I never experienced any of this first hand (I’m much too young). But I have seen reruns of “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Leave it to Beaver.” These gems of a bygone era have taught me two things:

Boys used to be given very unfortunate names, and

People used to be nice to each other

I’m bringing friendly back

Today, I’m pumped to share with all of you my second favorite technique for achieving blogging success. This is a technique I have used to catapult my blog into the stratosphere. Don’t believe me? Check out these statistics…

This technique has helped me go from zero to 7,500 (and counting) followers on Google Plus.

This technique has helped my Alexa ranking fall from over 20 million to under 100k in less than four months.

And this technique has helped me go from zero comments on my first blog post in May to 61 (and counting) in my most-recent post.

In short, this technique has helped me go from zero to hero. From Costanza to Costner. From a Kardashian to literally anyone else on the planet.

What’s the technique?

Be friendly.

Or, as I call it: The Howdy Neighbor Technique.

Don’t worry. I wouldn’t drop such an advanced technique at your feet and run away before showing you how it works. Here are real-life examples…

Welcome new members

In this screenshot, you see an individual introduce herself in a Google Plus “blogging” community.

Introductions such as this one occur thousands of times a day on Google Plus, Facebook, message boards, and the like. You’ve probably been the one introducing yourself a time or two.

So, how would you use The Howdy Neighbor Technique in this situation? Take another look at the screenshot. Do you see what my friend Steven Wilson and I are doing?

Yes, that’s right. We’re being friendly. We’re welcoming this new member to the community. Steven even goes the extra mile and shares pleasantries with her.

This is The Howdy Neighbor Technique at work. And in addition to making others feel good, it often results in an increased follower count.

Thank those who share your work

The Howdy Neighbor Technique isn’t solely for welcoming newcomers. No siree, Bob. It’s also used to thank people who share your posts on social media.

It doesn’t matter if the person sharing your work has 2 followers or 2 million, you should thank them when they do something nice for you. The fact Ana, Brian, and Pauline are popular and influential are coincidences I assure you.

To prove it, I’ll include one more example from a random blogger in Australia named Darren, who shared the guest post Andrew Warner wrote for me a few weeks ago.

When you take the time to thank a person for doing something nice for you, it brightens their day. It tells them they are noticed and their actions are appreciated. It also makes them far likelier to share more of your work in the future.

Share the work of others

Not only do you thank others for sharing your work, with The Howdy Neighbor Technique you do the sharing, too! You share great posts you come across in your day-to-day blog reading, such as this one written by my new friend Pooja Lohana.

Sharing the work of others has numerous benefits. It helps promote lesser-known bloggers, who will almost always express gratitude. It validates the work of contemporaries, who will appreciate the validation and often return the favor. And, it can potentially get you noticed by influential bloggers, which is never a bad thing. Plus, sharing is caring.

Respond to emails (and be helpful)

If you blog for any length of time, you’re going to get emails from readers who have a question or who could use a little help. Using The Howdy Neighbor Technique, not only do you respond to such emails, you try to be as helpful as possible. Here’s a recent email exchange between me and subscriber Shirl, who was dealing with comment spam. Taking the time to respond to your readers’ emails shows them you care. If you can’t write in-depth responses, point them in the right direction. But do help them. Each of us is an “influential blogger” to someone. Never forget that.

Don’t just respond to comments, promote them!

It goes without saying you should respond to the blog comments your readers leave you. Using The Howdy Neighbor Technique, I take it up a notch. When the wonderful Carol Amato left me this great comment…

…I did more than just respond to her comment. I promoted her comment on Twitter!

This part of The Howdy Neighbor Technique is a “win” across the board.

You’re shining the spotlight on your readers and their Twitter handles, while at the same time promoting your posts. You’re rewarding those who leave you great comments, and encouraging them to leave you more. Finally, you’re enticing those who aren’t leaving you comments to start doing so.

Link to other bloggers “just because”

The final example of The Howdy Neighbor Technique involves linking to other bloggers in your posts. You don’t need to force mentions, though. It needs to happen organically.

For example, if I was writing about people who have been blogging a long time, I might mention Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger, which has been helping bloggers since 2014. If I was writing about journalism, I might mention my friend Mi Muba, who used to work as a reporter.

If I was writing about traveling, it would be natural for me to mention Ryan Biddulph or Mandie Sanders. If I wanted to write about making your readers feel comfortable and at home, I would want to mention Adrienne Smith.

If I was writing about entrepreneurs, my friends Enstine Muki, Eric Deeter, and Richard Martin would spring to mind. If I’m writing about people who put my measly Master’s in Computer Science to shame, I might write about Jane Sheeba, who holds a Ph.D in Medical Physics.

If I was writing about maintaining several websites at one time, my friends Marc Andre and Catherine Holt would be clear inspirations. If I was writing about engagement, Harleena Singh and Don Purdom would be natural to link to due to the excellent comments they write and the wonderful communities they’ve built.

If I was being nostalgic, I might mention how Vatsala Shukla was one of my first commenters, or how I visited Josh Kotsay’s blog for insights on the Genesis Framework back before Be A Better Blogger was launched. I might mention Delia Rusu, who in those early days referred several of my now-regular readers.

If I was writing about readers who have been supportive, I might mention Beata, Okto, or Joy Healey. And if I was writing about bloggers who inspire me, how could I not mention Maxwell Ivey, the blind blogger?

See? Organic mentions, each and every one.

Don’t let the controversy scare you

No doubt, The Howdy Neighbor Technique is controversial. It confuses some, angers many. After all, the very idea of being “nice” is a foreign concept these days. It goes against conventional wisdom.

The time has come to rise up. We must throw down those angry shackles which bind us. We must leave our egotism and selfishness at the door.

If someone sneezes, we will say “bless you.” If we drink the last cup of coffee, we will put on some more for our co-workers. If someone Tweets something nice about us, we will reply and say “thanks.” And we’ll be sincere while doing these things. Oh yes, we will be sincere.

We must not acquiesce. We must fight the good fight. We must shout for all the world to hear:

“I…will…be…nice!”

Are you ready to join the revolution? If so, click the highlighted text below and proclaim it to the Twitterverse.

Reader Interactions

Comments

Yes, I SO agree with you and these are the exact and right ways to get traffic the natural way I would say, but more important than that, it’s the relationships you build with fellow bloggers.

You know I have always believed in this and so what all you mentioned, I sure am glad to be following. Sharing each others post, learning to give more than receive, being friendly and helpful, responding to comments and just going all out – is the way to be. I think if you do all of this, others too respond – I see most of them do that with me at least, so I know it does work wonders.

Adding a little personal touch to the tweets or anywhere you share the posts on social media helps, as it connects you with the readers and the person whose post you tweeted. Also, people are able to know you are real person and not just a robot tweeting away. I think it makes a lot of difference, and that’s one reason I never automate my tweets, unless they are from Triberr.

Thanks for sharing this with us and the kind mention. Have a nice week ahead 🙂

Haha. I’m sure I left people out (some I’ll likely regret omitting later). There’s just many great bloggers I’ve come across these four months, I wanted to thank as many as I could. And the format of this post gave me the perfect opportunity. 🙂

There are MANY great bloggers out there already doing these things, for sure. One of the fun aspects of writing this post was pretending no one else is doing these things, and that I am giving people brand new, never before seen information! Haha.

You’re welcome regarding the mention, Harleena! Hope you have a nice weekend, too.

Awesome! Bravo! Hats off to you Kevin for speaking my mind out. And thanks so much for linking to all the nice bloggers – I know 70% of them; I have yet to connect to the other 30% of whom you have mentioned in this post.

I cannot thank you enough for bringing up this topic which is very close to my heart. I’m all in for building genuine, long term relationships. And relationships are fun to build. It is not like the boring work you do – doing something fun and refreshing as part of the business keeps me motivated all day.

I smile when someone mentions me, or appreciates me for my work, or refers me to a new client, or thank me. But this happens only when I first give. I enjoy that happiness. It is priceless 🙂

I see a healthy growth in the blogosphere – even though still many bloggers have yet to understand and embrace this concept, I am happy that quite a few are starting to understand the importance of building connections.

The key is to generously share, link to, promote, and reach out to others. You don’t sit and wait for the others to reach you – you reach out to them. And that’s where the real joy blooms.

While I am writing this comment (about building connections and reading this post on the howdy neighbour topic) I feel so bumped and excited. It is because I know this works and I am already experiencing the joy.

Businesses are for people. If you don’t take people into the equation, any business is meaningless (and let’s not talk about achieving success!).

Thanks so much for the kind mention as well – you made me feel proud of my Ph. D 🙂

Ahhh…thank you for those kind words. I’m glad you liked the post, and I’m happy it spoke about something you feel passionately about.

Each of the bloggers I mentioned here (and many others I didn’t mention) “get it.” They’ve done a great job of building relationships. They’re kind, polite, and grateful. In short, they’re the kind of people I don’t mind mentioning in blog posts like this one!

Not all are like these bloggers, though. Unfortunately, many still look out for #1. They spam us. They leave us one-sentence comments. They unfollow us on social media if we don’t follow them within a day or two. Here’s hoping such bloggers will read this post, see how these other great bloggers are doing things, and change their ways. Hopefully… they will join The Howdy Neighbor Technique Revolution!! Haha. 🙂

Thank you for your great comment, Jane. Have a great rest of your week!

Great post. Who would have ever thought that being friendly would be so effective online? This is something that alot more people have to do. See many people are out for themselves and don’t approach things this way but just look at your numbers. You can easily see that it works wonders.

The one thing I’ve been noticing you doing alot of it not only responding to comment but to promote them as well. That’s pretty smart. But I have a question, would you do that with all the comments you receive on a blog post or some? And if all, how spaced out in terms or time, should they be?

Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it! I definitely hope this is something more and more bloggers do. All the ones I mentioned (and several more I didn’t mention, but easily could have) do things the right way. But, sadly, there are many who don’t.

Yes, I’ve been doing the “promote comments” thing for a while now. Regarding the frequency, it depends. If it’s a post I think has a good shot at generating more traffic than usual, I may use it more than another one. But it also depends on the comments I receive. To work properly, I need a “soundbite.” I need a sentence or short phrase which will sound good in a Tweet. Some great comments have them, some don’t.

For example, in her comment for this post Jane writes “Awesome! Bravo! Hats off to you Kevin…” That’s a great soundbite for a Tweet.

As far as timing, you definitely have to space out the Tweets. A tool like Buffer helps with this, since it lets me schedule Tweets for certain times. So, I might Tweet a comment every 30-60 minutes when the post is new and fresh. It really depends on how many comments you’re receiving.

I think it’s a nice way to encourage comments. And not just any comments, but good comments. You have to make sure you don’t overuse it, though. I deliberately didn’t use it during the week of “5 posts in 5 days” for this very reason.

Excellent post! The thing that makes this technique even better, is that since being kind and generous is not common we immediately stand out.

I appreciate the mention. The thing I found about engaging in the communities is that you also build a good rapport with the community owners as well which can go a long way when promoting your own content.

You definitely mentioned some awesome people and some I have not meet yet. I will stop by and introduce myself.

You’re right (sadly). Being genuinely nice is uncommon these days, so the bloggers who are (and aren’t just acting nice in order to gain something) really do stand out.

You’re welcome regarding the mention! It’s funny, but I wasn’t planning on mentioning you the way I did. I wanted to grab a screenshot of myself welcoming a random community member, and it just so happens the one I selected already had a welcome from you! I thought, “Definitely have to use this one so I can get Steven in the screenshot…” 🙂

Yes, do stop by and greet these great folks. A lot of good bloggers (and good people!) were mentioned here.

Cool title for your article, and I’m old enough to have lived in that age when everyone in the neighborhood waved and greeted each other. Simple wonderful. 🙂

I STILL do return my shopping cart to the designated area because I really, really try to live a life whereby I treat others the way I want to be treated.

What you’re describing is good character, and having basic respect for others, which my parents taught me. I further developed these character traits after becoming a Christian. We have in turn, taught our three children (adults now), and they are respectful, thoughtful adults because of it.

Love the simplicity of your message. Be friendly. The Howdy Neighbor Technique, Yep, it’s a motto that’s a good one. Friendliness, and gratefulness for others sharing content is important. Only the selfish people never get anywhere in their business.
Yeah, it never matters to me if the person that shared my content is a big shot or not, I have always shown my appreciation for shared content.

Sharing great content is a lot of fun and quite natural when you get a lot of value from something. I’m less likely to share when someone emails me or Facebook messages me asking me to promote their stuff when I don’t even know them yet. Not happening.

After taking care of my Mastermind Circle students, I always spend time emailing help to folks that ask (as time allows) and give tips and help so as to help them in their business. I remember what it was like to have no one.

I love the Disqus comment plugin because it makes sharing comments on social media as easy as one click. 🙂 Thanks for the mention, Kevin, I so appreciate that! Promoting comments brings traffic back to the original article, not the commenter’s site, right? I just wanted to be clear. That’s what my comment plugin does.

Wow, such a wonderful thing to share 44+ links to friends websites that have encouraged you in some way. I don’t think I’ve seen this many link outs before, whoa!

Thanks! Yeah, I liked the title, too. Although (and this is a sad commentary on the times in which we live), I had to do a Google search before publishing to make sure it wasn’t a slang term with an alternate meaning! Thankfully, it was clean. 🙂

I return my carts, too, and it bugs me to no end when I see carts left all over the parking lot. The only people I give a pass to are moms with young children. They often have difficult times returning the carts, especially when shopping alone. But grown men in the 40s? They should be ashamed. Haha.

Absolutely. Everything described in this post relates to being respectful and having good character. As I mention in my bio at the end of every post, “I serve a great God.” And when you’re serving others, you’re serving Him. Being friendly to people isn’t always easy, but that’s why it’s oh so important. You never know how your act of kindness will impact someone.

That’s awesome the way you spend time emailing your students. It IS tough when you’re learning. Having someone willing to take the time to help means a lot to them I’m sure.

I’ve yet to research Disqus, but it doesn’t surprise me when you say it’s great for sharing comments on social media. If my site every got REALLY big, I could see it being something I’d consider (since Disqus hosts the comments, there wouldn’t be extra load on my server).

Yes, the way I promote comments brings traffic to the original article/post. The commenter gets their Twitter handle promoted, of course. I’ve just found it to be a great way to promote my posts AND thank readers who leave me great comments. Win-win. 🙂

Howdy neighbor, thanks for mentioning me. I think this is a really appropriate post for you to write because your friendly approach is obvious to anyone who has been following your blog or following you on social media. Thanks for not only telling us how to do it, but also walking the walk and showing by example.

Thanks! That’s kind of you to say. I do hope I come across as friendly (as opposed to a guy always making jokes or making random references); it’s certainly one of my primary goals. Be friendly, be helpful, be available.

This is not simly a post. This is the complete tutorial to teach HOW TO ORGANIZE AN ONLINE PARTY WITHIN YOUR BLOG POST.

Just by reading this post I came to know nearly 30 to 40 bloggers and you very skillfully mentioned their main quality or your main reason of referring them. So I can say for sure whoever wantS to know 40 bloggers in one go just arrive here and enjoying meeting them in each sentence of this post one by one.

I just read a post of Don Purdon who mentioned ten bloggers in his post and not very casually but he had very sound reason to do that.

It shows the power of networking and how people getting familiar with each other. Once I was avoiding to join a weekend party and the one who convinced me to join it gave only one reason of missing to meet several awesome people if I did not attend the party.

Same is applying now online. If we don’t visit each others blog post we not only be deprived of A lot of new info and thoughts but also miss so many mentions of the post.

Just imagine if I had not read this post I might have missed several new names for me which you mentioned here.

I really liked your point of thanking other for sharing our content to which we made lot of efforts and worked day and night. And we should also share their work to make them feel good to drive them back to our blog and enhance our long term base traffic.

I have really enjoyed reading your post – I remember you said somewhere you were good at being funny – and you were not kidding!

Gosh, quite list of bloggers – when do you find time to read all their work? In addition to writing your own? Do you have a secret clone who does some of the work for you? Spend nights on a different planet where there are more than 24 hours in a day? 😀 No? None of these? Then it must be pure witchcraft, I reckon! Ha, ha!

I am SO with you on the low-riding pants thing (really annoying! Why would I need to know what some guy is wearing uderneath???) and the little acts of kindness and, well, often simply decency. So I say ‘no’ to leaving shopping carts in the middle of the car park, to not looking at a person I speak to and to taking people for granted. And I really don’t like automated tweets which either ‘welcome’ new followers in bulk (does the person I followed actually realise she/he has a new follower?) or announce monetary value of one’s tweets to the entire universe. Do we really need to know that someone only tweets to us because they are driven by their ‘tweet-worth’?

Yes, being kind often seems a controversial concept these days, but I am all for it. Ready to join a ‘Howdy Neighbor’ revolution! 🙂

Well, I know I’ve mentioned I try to be funny. Hopefully I succeed more times than not. 🙂

How do I find time to read all the posts of these bloggers? Great question! The answer is I don’t know. Haha. Honestly, my schedule is so busy these days. Finding time to read blogs and leave comments (and respond to my own comments) is tough sometimes. But, even if it takes me weeks to catch up, I do my best to get it done. (And witchcraft is rarely, if ever, needed!)

No clue why the low-pants thing was ever a thing, much less why it still is. Perplexes me. And I’m not a fan of automated Tweets either. It’s so much better when someone replies themselves. Makes much more of an impression.

Glad you’re ready to join the revolution! Look out blogosphere…here we come. 🙂

Thanks for yet another entertaining comment, Beata. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Hi Kevin, you are so right about neighbors today, I barely know mine. But my dad’s are wonderful and have known each other for many years and are always there for each other. That’s why I love my blogging community and I got to know many from Twitter. It’s about being social and really being interested in other people. I never knew this when I first started to blog but it didn’t take long to learn my blogging friends were there for me.
Great post and thank you for the mention too Kevin. Glad we are blogging neighbors!

Hi Kevin; I was pleased to read your excellent post about the value of good manners and being nice online. I strive to remember to thank people whenever they help me be it a guest post or liking my face book page. Its the right thing to do, but since so few do it; its a good way to get noticed or be remembered. So is answering emails promptly. I get a lot of people who thank me for a quick reply to their questions. replying to comments and promoting other people’s posts seems only natural. and when you are part of a guest post or are a podcast guest then you have to work extra hard. I was pleased to see several bloggers who I follow in your post. and I was honestly surprised to see my name included. I didn’t think I had made a big enough impression or had known you long enough for the mention. so thanks it never gets old to find my name mentioned. And it looks like there are a few other bloggers here I should go check out. thanks again for the post and the mention. You are doing good work here, Max

Thanking people, promptly answering emails, etc are (sadly) done by too few people, so those who do it, such as yourself, definitely stand out!

You’re very welcome in regards to the mention. I know we haven’t conversed a whole lot, but you definitely made a positive impression. Hopefully I did the same for you. 🙂

Yes, it never gets old having your name mentioned. I wrote this on Twitter a while back, but I hope I never stop getting excited when I discover someone has linked to me! It’s a great feeling.

For sure, there are lots of great bloggers mentioned here you should check out! I hope everyone who reads this post finds SOMEONE they didn’t know before, and will go make a connection. That would be nice. 🙂

Honestly Kevin, it totally cracks me up when I see bloggers, who blog about blogging, linking back to my mom bloggers site where I teach parents how to keep kids from picking their nose…ha ha. You are certainly too kind! I’m definitely down with the howdy neighbor technique…I’ve just been getting revved up with the whole thing since my friends Brittany Bullen and Ana Lyn Ameilio starting overrunning my blog with awesome comments. After they did this about 10 times I finally got a clue that I needed to get my act together with the whole friendliness thing. You are awesome. Perfect post for my weekly round up. Have a great day!

Haha. Well, admittedly I wouldn’t have found your blog without your posts on IBA. Otherwise, my wife would have found your blog long before I would have! But, regardless of how I found it, I found it. And I think you do great work!

A few times on my old humor blog (that’s why I did when I first got into blogging: I wrote humor and satire), I was linked to by several personal finance sites. Talk about unsuspected. 🙂

Glad Brittany and Ana Lyn (who I don’t know) have gotten you pumped up about commenting and networking! It certainly helps when you have good blogging friends.

It might sometimes take me a week (or longer) to respond to a comment, but you better believe I read each and every one. (That’s one of the joys of technology. Every time someone leaves me a comment, my phone makes a noise and I can read it that hot minute. This is also one of the curses of technology!)

I’m going to tell my age but I remember the days we returned the carts from grocery shopping or held the door open just because. When people would say good morning in passing and we all eagerly replied. When people were polite and courteous, it was just part of the way we were brought up. I still say yes sir and no mam to people because it’s the right thing to do.

Being nice shouldn’t be an effort, it should be who you are as a person. I know that I share a lot in my own posts that you truly do have to care about people to make it in the blogging arena and for a lot of the reasons you just mentioned here.

I’ve heard big named bloggers say they no longer have time to thank people on Twitter for sharing their content. Really! I hope I get that darn busy some day but I can’t ever see not thanking them. They can just as easily go find someone else’s content to read that’s as good as that. People that will really appreciate them when they take the time to mention them.

You are right, just being neighborly is the right thing to do and people appreciate it so much. They want to be noticed and recognized. They want to know you care so show them.

Do it because it’s the right thing to do, not because you want to get ahead. Oh heck, you get it Kevin which is why you’re having such great results.

I love this post and I also appreciate the mention, thank you so much. That’s just awesome and definitely share worthy content my friend.

Since I live in the South (I assume it’s the same for you in Texas), you do still do find people are nice “just because.” But then you have what I call “the others.” The co-workers who aren’t originally from here, who think nothing of ignoring “hellos” in the hallways. The drivers who think nothing of taking up two, sometimes three, parking places. And the ones I talk about in the post who really irk me: The people who leave carts in the middle of parking lots!

No joke. It would be nice to get so big and successful one day you even debate halting the thanking of people! I’d like to think if I ever get that successful, I’ll hire people to help me. The idea of stopping what I’ve been doing (the things that made me successful) once I become successful seems like madness to me.

Yeah, I’ve lived in the Houston area my entire life and we have a lot of awesome people here still. The problems we run into, like you, are the people who have migrated to Texas yet forgot to bring their manners with them. They are rude, disrespectful and give our state a bad reputation. I wish they would all just go back home if they can’t play nice.

My Dad was a salesman and worked out of the house. We had to answer the phone so it could be his clients at any time of the day so I was taught at a very early age how to be respectful of others.

I’ve read several debates about stopping with the thank yous but it’s gotten me to where I am today and I will always appreciate people so I don’t ever see that happening myself.

What a concept, who knew being so nice would help you get so far. After all, I thought that nice guys finished last? NOT!

You’re article is so needed. There is so much rudeness and carelessness out there. It’s a me first society and yet people wonder why they cannot get ahead?

As you said, the key is in giving, not receiving. Give and you will receive. I have always believed that if we just do the right things everything else will take care of themselves.

Look at your stats! That’s fantastic!!!!! I really have no idea what mine look like but I’m not really focused on that to be honest. I’m focused on helping as many business owners and entrepreneurs understand how to use their websites and the technology to make their businesses better.

When someone gets it that is big time exciting!!!

The only way they are going to get it is for them to see it in action. Kevin, you’re an awesome example!!!!!

“Give and you will receive.” Absolutely. I agree with you wholeheartedly. And you’re a great example. Your Saturday Rewinds, your habit of mentioning bloggers in your network, your social media shares, etc are all ways you give. And the proof is in the puddin’, so to speak. You have built up quite a following in a short amount of time!

Definitely understand your reasons for not keeping up with your stats. I’m in a bit different situation, of course. Plus, since I’m consistently A/B testing to see what works and what doesn’t, knowing my stats comes in handy. Haha.

Thanks for the kind words, Don! I’m glad you got something out of the post, and thank you for sharing it with your followers. Hopefully they’ll get something out of it, too!

I was sitting here, reading your post to my wife and had just got through saying, “You know Kathilynn, Kevin is the very first blogger I’ve followed in nine years…just because. I enjoy the feel of this blog and his character. I think if we were in the same neighborhood, we’d be hanging out together and laughing.” …and then I see you refer to me!

*Gives a great BIG Opie smile (freckles and all)…*

Not only is this a great article, it perfectly supports your comments on post rates. When you’re not struggling to make a ‘quota’ (like I’ve been for most of the year) you tend to BE more friendly, doncha think? Being a father of 12 (baby almost here) and writing stories for kids nearly 18 hours a day, maintaining daily blog posts seems to be sucking the joy out of…just being.

GOOD NEWS: I love being nice. Focusing on other people–both encouraging and cheering them on makes ones own burdens seem lighter. The sun comes out and hey…I think I hear some birds outside my window…

I’d hate to have my mom looking down on me, shaking her head for NOT being nice.

(looks up and winks).

Can I also add that being nice to others–just because–will break down walls you may not even know exists…until someone says thank you or responds to a comment.

I’m with Don Purdum in focusing on explaining my WHY to kids–and helping as many see their potential rather than my stats, but your progress is awesome! Looking forward to more posts and great comments from all you clever people!

Talk about a compliment. Thank you for that! The first in nine years? Really?? Now I’m really glad I referred to you in the post! I know I get a spring in my step whenever someone mentions me in a post, so I’m thrilled I was able to do the same. 🙂

Absolutely. When you don’t have a quota to meet, it definitely frees you. Any and all expectations for this blog are ones I created myself, so I’m (to quote the Francesca Battistelli song) free to be me. Sure, it may sometimes take me a week or two to respond to a comment, but I’m going to do it. It’s who I am! (Thankfully, I have a wonderful wife who reminds me when I’ve gotten behind on comments.) 🙂

You’re certainly an entertaining writer, Jaime. Based on your comments, I can only imagine how your books rate entertainment scale! I’m glad to have you as a new reader, for sure.

Well I think you’d have to ask kids if I’m a good writer or not. They keep buying books, so that’s either a good or…someone got into moms purse and lifted her credit card.

(…better than buying drugs, though, right?)

I preferred to be a cartoonist, but a car accident took that away–so now I do the best with what I have (grin).

Truth be told, I’m having more fun writing books than I ever did making comics. Weird.

It looks from the post comments that everyone here is a professional–it’s kinda intimidating! I’m just a dad of 12, married to his best friend and makes a living lying to children and talking to people who aren’t really there.

Wait, that’s my grandma.

I think I’m going to do some blog hopping soon and see who everyone is from these comments…

You’re such a smarty. Thanks for the mention, despite the fact that you know I’ve already shared your post– I’ll make sure to share it on other platforms as well since we all know how much bloggers love to draw attention to ourselves!

You’ve inspired me. I need to do a better job of reaching out to new members of the IBA. I do that a little, but I never thought of it as a way to grow your social media following, particularly on Google Plus. I was wondering how you grew your following so quickly! Genius!

Thanks for sharing. The post I have linked here mentions you/this post as well. =)

Great post and might I just say that the Howdy Neighbor Technique goes a long way when it comes our blogging community!

It’s like Karma. Whether it good karma or bad karma, it will come full circle. So you definitely want to take full responsibility of your action and go out your way to use this technique because it usually find it’s way around.

I’ve noticed this last year when I started socializing with people who believes in this I started to do this more often than I was. As a result, I started getting more love from them as well as getting better results with my blog. After a while it tend to be more fun and I started to enjoy blogging and communicating with others a lot more, despite the better results I was getting.

It’s funny how something so simple as this can bring the best results back to you! Thanks for sharing and the reminder! I hope you have a great weekend!

Being friendly definitely can be contagious. Tell someone “thanks” and they’re more likely to turn around and say it to someone else. Share their posts and they will share the work of others. Not all do this, of course. Some people live in their own little bubble of entitlement. But many live outside this bubble, and when you reach out them all sorts of wonderful things can happen.

“After a while it tend to be more fun and I started to enjoy blogging and communicating with others a lot more, despite the better results I was getting.”

SO TRUE! Sherman, I think this is probably the most important aspect of this post (IMHO). We have to do the right thing because it’s the right thing…not because we think OTHER people will think we’re doing the right thing. (Yeah, I think that made sense…)

Not like the Cub Scout who came home with a black eye.

Mom says, “Son, what happened?”
He frowns, “I helped an old lady across the street.”
“I–I don’t understand,” she replied, “then how did you get the black eye?”
Shrugging, he lowered his head. “She didn’t want to go.”

I’m like the only guy that returns shopping carts to where they are supposed to be returned to in my place. I do miss the good old days.

At least the time for me seeing teenagers walking around flaunting their underwears are long gone…now replace by ultra tight skinny jeans…sigh.

Back to topic, ever since I found your blog Kevin, I’ve always “heard” your voice. I haven’t really heard you talk but I feel that I already know how you sound just by reading your content. Im sure the rest of the people above feel the same way. That friendly tone will keep readers like me coming back.

So you’re the only one in your area who returns shopping carts to their proper place? Gosh, that’s horrible. I can’t even imagine. Wait, yes I can… (Imagines a parking lot filled with dozens and dozens of carts.) Not cool. Not cool.

Agreed. The ultra-tight jeans are also a problem. Sadly, where I live we get both. You can be at a restaurant and see one teenager walk by with sagging pants, and minutes later see one with skinny jeans.

Thanks for the compliment! I’m glad you can “hear my voice” when you read my writing. I try to be as personable as possible when I write, so I’m glad it’s coming through for you!

Hope you have an awesome weekend, Dennis. Thanks for the great comment!

The last blogger on earth…..who you mentioned….just read this post 😉 Awesome, awesome piece, and what a A list of bloggers.

Congrats on getting Darren’s share too! Well done.

Being nice helped me score almost 40 blog features in a little over 3 months. I’ve been so blessed but really, even though I intend to do my best to over deliver, and that does play a part in this technique, just plain being nice, engaging, and personable will open doors that less mindful people miss.

If you tag people to promote them, and thank people for tweeting you, and just do your best to respond to folks who help you, and to shout out folks through your blog, and social networks, you’ll find many folks doing the same for you, and your reach will expand at an exponential rate.

Give freely, receive easily.

I’ve seared that mantra into my head because I’ve learned from dudes like you that the more you feature others the more good things will return to you.

Thanks. I’m glad you liked it! And yes, it was fun having Darren Rowse reading the blog and sharing it on Twitter, but it was bittersweet, too. This Tweet I made adequately summarizes the bitter-sweetness of the situation, I think. Haha.

The quantity (and quality) of the features you’ve scored the past 3 months is amazing, Ryan. I often wonder how you find the time to do all the things you’re doing.

“Give freely, receive easily.” Excellent. Well said.

Appreciate the Tweet and (as always) your great comment. Congrats on your third eBook (seriously…how are you doing all this?). I hope it does well!

Excellent example of how your howdy neighbour technique is used. 🙂 Thanks for the mention btw, appreciate the inclusion and your kind words…

Totally agree, It doesn’t cost anything to be nice – online or offline.

It makes me shudder when I hear others say that you should never thank people for sharing your stuff, or commenting on your blog, it looks unprofessional, apparently. I just don’t understand that mentality. After all, we reap what we sow and our friend Ryan Biddulph is living proof of that.

Once again Kevin you’ve brightening up my day with your quirky sense of humour and I’ll definitely be sharing this with all my awesome buddies on social media. 🙂

Exactly! Being nice is free, and as I like to say: “You can’t beat free.”

Wow. You know, I’ve never come across advice stating not to thank people because it looks unprofessional. That’s crazy.

I get it if someone wants to come across as this mythical, larger-than-life blogger who is much, much too busy for things like saying “thanks.” But even then, I wouldn’t view this person as professional. I’d just think they were a jerk. Haha.

First off, thank you — see I’m taking your advice and applying it rightaway 😉

I did so on Twitter too. And on G+ too.

The past which resonates the *most* with me is answering emails. I spend awful lot of time doing that — I LOVE helping and responding to people’s emails. Well, the ones that ask a specific, relevant question at least. 🙂

I notice in the process you learn so much yourself.

Plus, it’s a great way to build a solid network and nurture your relationships. After all, business is relationships, isn’t it?

Awesome to hear you enjoy responding to emails. That’s a great quality to have, especially considering the more popular and influential you become the more emails you’re going to receive. I pray I never get tired of responding to emails! 🙂

Glad you enjoyed the post, Pooja. Thank you for your great comment. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

It’s all about Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion . Action and Reaction are equal in magnitude but opposite in direction.

If you do something good to someone, it will return back to you and similar is the case with doing bad to someone. If you share someone’s else work, they will pay you back in terms of traffic/recognition/more connections or maybe even more sales.

The more space you cover on blogosphere, the more effective and successful you will be. The best tool to cover more blogosphere is to make connections and for that you have to be friendly.

Thanks for commenting! It’s often true… if you do something nice, nice things tend to come back to you. Hopefully, that’s never the primary reason someone chooses to do nice things. Hopefully they do it because it’s the right thing to do. But there’s no denying the side benefit which often happens. 🙂

Thanks so much for the shout out! Now I feel really bad for being so behind on commenting on your articles (I’ve been reading and sharing all of them, though!). 🙂

I love, love, love this post, and not just because I’m in it. I love it because it exemplifies everything that’s so wonderful about the blogoshpere in general.

When I was at my corporate job, I avoided getting close to anyone, because I knew that almost anyone I worked with would sell me out if it meant getting ahead themselves. The world of blogging is built on very different principles.

I’ve never viewed other bloggers as my competition. When you share, promote, and help other people…you’re also helping yourself. This is really good news for people like me, who love helping other people.

It goes beyond blogging – being genuinely nice to other people will ALWAYS come back to you. I recently helped a fellow blogger redesign & migrate her website to self-hosted WordPress.

I didn’t charge her anything, and I didn’t have any ulterior motives. Within 2 days of launching her new site I had already gotten 3 emails from people wanting to hire me.

I truly believe that whatever you give will come back to you – you are living proof of that. Look at your rock star stats! 🙂

You’re very welcome regarding the shout out! Don’t worry about being behind on comments, I’m about a week behind, too! My goal is to catch up this week. 🙂

Thank you! I’m glad you love the post (and not just because you’re in it, haha). You’re definitely right about the corporate world. Everyone, it seems, is looking out for number one. It can drag you down if you let it, for sure.

I’ve never viewed other bloggers as my competition either. They’re either people I can learn from or people I can help (and sometimes they’re both!). Kudos on the 3 emails from people wanting to hire you! Which reminds me, I really, really like your blog’s design. You did that, right? Very nice.

I wouldn’t call them rock star stats! Haha. Well, Google Plus isn’t too shabby. Twitter is still kind of depressing. But the traffic and mailing is growing nicely. 🙂

Glad you liked the post! I saw your link to me in your latest post. Very kind of you (and an excellent look at Enstine’s Broaded.net, too). Appreciate it!

As for Google+ communities, I haven’t been very active lately due to lack of time, but I’ll gladly share with you ones I’ve used in the past. “Google Plus Pro Tips” is great for G+ specific tips. For blogging, I’m a member of two named “Blogging” (go here and here). “Bloggers of Google Plus” is another one, but I haven’t used it in ages.

There are probably more groups more active than these, though.

I may create a group of my own at some point. We shall see.

Thanks again for the link, Karmakar. And thanks for your comment and your support!

Wheeewwww another FABULOUS post! I will most certainly attempt to live up to your praise and be a “female bloggers who kick butt and take names”! A number of great tips here – truly – being nice only takes a couple of extra seconds, but the rewards (internal and external) are so worth it! Can’t wait until your next post!

Today I found this at the home page of twitter, what a great opportunity to be here!!
Indeed this is an amazing post, yes, and the new techniques of building up good relationship between people. Though I have been following some of the technique I never thought of many of the other things mentioned here, Yes, I am sure these will fetch a good and firm rapport with the people we come across. Indeed a welcome note to a new comer to a particular forum or meet where we are members will surely make a great impact on that new comer. I do this but I never thought of that after effect of such welcome note.

Kevin, I like the technique of attending promptly to the email response, that is really great, the example you mentioned in this too I could pick up some vital lessons, surely the person who received that mail appreciate your effort in contacting him. Oh my tweet and re-tweet, another new lesson to me, wha! that screen shots speaks volumes! Thanks Kevin for this viral post. I said viral indeed it is!! Thank you so much again for providing such a lot of information for your readers, I am sure not only to the newbies but even the veterans can pick up one or two or more lessons from this wonderful and educative post.

Another vital point i noted is the intro of many amazing bloggers with their links to visit in.
What an Idea! I think almost all responded to their mention here in this post.
Altogether it’s a wonderful post to save it, yeah, I am bookmarking it for my further read and study. Thanks Kevin for this educative tool.

Absolutely. Welcoming new members to forums will make a wonderful impression on them. It’s always nice to feel welcomed. Regarding the email, hopefully Shirl benefited from our exchange. She thanked me, so hopefully some of the tips I gave her helped with her spam issues!

You’re very welcome, Philip. I’m glad you found the post to be so helpful and educational. Hopefully, many others felt the same way. I hope your week is going great so far, Philip. Have an awesome day!

I just had a conversation around this topic in a Facebook thread. I broached the idea of the lack of common courtesy. The things you cover in this wonderful post are detailed and useful. Taken back to their foundation, they are all about being a nice and courteous person.

I am old enough to remember when people were nice in the way you discuss at the beginning. No, I wasn’t a kid in the 50’s, but I was one in the 60’s. I remember simple things like telling someone you’d call them back if they phoned while you had company (in your house, since that’s the only place phones existed). I remember always bringing the shopping cart back along with thank you cards and real invitations.

Recently I spent time gift coaching a FB friend who was struggling. Following our second conversation I wrote him a long email with suggestions and a few ideas that would be win-win for both of us. I’ve been around way too long hold expectation of people’s responses nor behavior. I have no attachment to outcome. But…..

The Howdy Neighbor nice guy/gal in me would thing that at least a thank you response would be forthcoming, even if it was no thank you. And here is what I believe is the essence of what you are teaching in your post.

Make the little extra effort.
Be kind and polite
Courtesy is never wasted
People crave connection – be a connector
Good Karma is a good thing
Go-Givers make an energetic positive difference for everyone.

Glad you liked it! Yes, strip away all the blogging aspects of the post and you’re left with what you said: be a nice, courteous person. Being from the south, I’m fortunate in that I still meet a lot of friendly people. But the numbers, sadly, are dwindling!

It’s unfortunate your FB “friend” couldn’t take the time to send you a simple “thanks” or “no thanks.” It takes only a minute to thank someone for their time, and that minute could boost the person’s spirits. You never know what someone is going through, after all. Your “thanks” or “I appreciate that” or “glad to have you here” could make their day. 🙂

I’m glad you found my blog, too, Deborah! Thank you for the wonderful comment. Hope your week is off to an awesome start.

Ah.. I found it!! After a long term searching the thread for your reply so I could write you back Kevin, I sent an email instead and then…found it!

I’m excited that it was hard to find my comment in the thread because that so many people loved this topic and had something to say about it! You clearly touched a nerve and engaged so many who want to reach out and say “howdy” and appreciate it when others do the same back to them!

I does only take a minute to acknowledge another and do something thoughtful or kind. I almost feel that the speed at which we now communicates has taught people that it’s OK to be brusque or ignore. We’ve stopped signing emails and rarely say hello or goodbye in texts.

I’ve been using that Howdy Technique all the time. I guess it is because I’m from the days of having doors opened for me by men, getting a seat on the subway because I am a woman. Not as grandiose as “Leave It To Beaver” but close to it.

Even though I was raised in Brooklyn and NYC, where people usually don’t make that eye contact, we still acknowledged our neighbors. If we heard a noise, we came to their aid. Moms watched not only their kids, but the whole neighborhoods.

A time where we had pride of ownership..people worked hard to own their own homes. Neighborhoods were respected. We shared common decency and etiquette was part of the norm.

We essentially cared about each other in a way that doesn’t exist now. When it came to politics, there were debates, but no hatred, rather respect for another person’s opinion.

So all that is part of me. When I blog, I have a little trick I use so I don’t forget anyone. Whenever someone comments, before I answer, I will go to their blog, Read It, leave the best comment I can and then not only share it on social media,but give a good intro to the share.

On social media, engagement is the key. It’s all about having that altruistic attitude!

Putting others before oneself is the way to go. But it has to come from the heart, it has to be a real part of you. Once it is Karma will thank you.

Welcome to my blog! It’s good to have you here after “meeting” you (officially) for the first time on Carol Amato’s site. 🙂

Yeah, I still do the “hold doors open” thing. It’s a southern thing, although fewer and fewer men seem to be doing it. Sad…

I love your trick. Not only does it assure you’re going to remember the individual, but talk about making a great impression with them. That’s a really, really great routine. Altruism isn’t dead after all! 🙂

Quick question… How do you balance your schedule? Like Carol, Adrienne Smith and a few others I know, you do an excellent job at promptly responding to comments (even though you receive a LOT of them). I respond, too, just never as promptly as I would like!

Balancing my schedule takes discipline and becomes a routine. I put up a post, check in 2 times a day to answer comments and go to people’s blogs first as I mentioned above.

Then there is the social media I have to be on. My Facebook Page is where I’m focused right now, and I have a system for that. I schedule posts (3 or 4 ) per day using a technique whereby I ask a question, post something “emotional” Do a “this or that” ex. do you like dogs or cats. Then every 10 days or so, do a CTA to press the app to opt into my sales page.
I set it all up on Pagemodo once a week so it is all scheduled in. Then I check in two times per day to answer comments. That page is doing well.

Of course, most of my day is consumed with clients, they are my top priority. One to One coaching, people that are in my VIP club asking questions, etc.

But it is all done in chunks of time. Once I create a schedule, I stick to it and it is all in my appointment book (the real one with paper lol)

Of course, the harder I work, the more I make time for myself every day just to get out and do something pleasurable.

Absolutely. If you build relationships with people, they’re far more likely to want to support you. And I can’t think of a better way to build relationships than a selfless, friendly, altruistic attitude!

I’m glad you enjoyed the post. Thanks for commenting, and I hope you are having a great weekend!

Another great post as usual! I think the first time we met was when i commented on your Writer’s Block post here on BABB. You put in the effort to make a connection and somehow (almost like digital magic) formed a friendship. There are very few bloggers out there acting like real humans and they rarely take the time to be a friend. But you’re doing something special and it’s something us aspiring bloggers can all learn from.

Thank you! Yes, I believe you’re right. If memory serves, you told me the post had helped you with the post you were writing at the time, and things grew from there. I was impressed with your writing (you’re a heck of a writer), so learning I had helped you even a little bit made my day!

Well, in time too, I’ve just mentioned you and linked to one of your posts today!

Thank God I was raised by a mother who was returning shopping carts :), so as they say, monkey see monkey do, and I still do it to this day. I don’t believe too much into being able to turn a no good neighbor into good one, but I believe that what you’re made of is what’s going to make you act a certain way.

Success in blogging is all about knowing how to build those bridges by building relationships with others, bloggers or potential customers/clients, it’s all the same. Very well done.

Thank you for linking to me in your post! That was quite a pleasant surprise. It’s always fun to discover someone has linked to or mentioned you on their blog. It’s like Christmas morning. 🙂

I’m glad you enjoyed the most, and I’m glad Carol Amato invited me to guest post on her wonderful site so you and I could connect. Hope this comment finds you doing well. Thanks for stopping by! Have an awesome week. 🙂

I found your article through our mutual friend Brittany and I had to pop over to see if your technique is what I suspected it was. Then I saw my name mentioned in the comments and I just had to add my two (maybe five cents!). I’ve been telling this to my husband for over a year now whenever I read an article about how to get more shares/likes/comments. You summed it up very nicely (yes, I said summed it up even though it’s a long article but I am used to those because of my husband), my bad is that I honestly thought this was common sense.

I can’t say that I am perfect when it comes to this but I do try to mention and tag people when I share their posts. Thanks for the tip to promote the comment, that one hasn’t occurred to me but I hope you won’t mind too much if I borrow it from you. Thanks for a great article, and have a fabulous day!

Welcome to my blog! It’s very nice to “meet” you. I’ll have to send Brittany a big thanks for allowing you to find me. 🙂

You’re right, all of this should be common sense. Sadly, responding to comments or simply saying “thanks” isn’t the norm anymore. You’re more than welcome to use the comment promotion tip! I hope many of the people who read it will use it (and hopefully they all will remember where they were introduced to the idea…right here!). 🙂

I’m glad you enjoyed the post! Hope you’re having an awesome week, Ana, and I hope to see you again!

Hi Kevin; well, I’m a bit behind on everything right now. had to send my laptop to the apple store to have the keyboard replaced. It was my own fault not cleaning my hands often enough and having a big hairy dog who insists on a lot of petting. 🙂 but it could have been worse. they told me three to five business days which would have been wednesday or maybe even friday of this week. bad thing about being a blind computer user is you can’t always have access to another device when your computer is in the shop. its easier with apple in that you can turn speech on on any of their devices but that only works if you own more than one which I don’t. I realize the value of a smart phone or tablet and plan to add one or the other soon. thanks for the mention on twitter following the blog comment. you do a lot of great work here. take care, max

“Back in the day” . . . I love this post! I too try to practice “The Howdy Neighbor Technique”. The thing is that working online is not that much different from working in the brick and mortar world. People prefer to do business with people that they like. Being courteous and friendly goes a long way.

BTW – I still return my shopping carts – except at my favorite grocery store that is. Why not there? Because, it’s a small local family owned chain and they actually have store associates who follow shoppers to their cars, help unload the carts and return them for us! In inclement weather (of which there’s much in New England), they even offer to stand by the cart while we retrieve our cars. Then, they will load them for us. Now that’s neighborly!

What an awesome list of bloggers to give a shout-out to! (Thanks so much for including me.) I hope you’re having a wonderful week. 🙂

This is a great concept for many people who are NOT nice, I can assure you of that!
I however, am a nice person and help others as much as possible. I’ve grown my followers on Twitter (not hugely) by using this technique, and it is often reciprocated, too. 🙂

I had to laugh when you wrote you remembered when people were nice to one another. What has happened? So many people have lost simple consideration for others. At least with blogging we can bring some of that back 😉

Just the simple techniques of a friendly comment, thanking someone for visiting your blog, offering friendly advice, sharing someone’s advice and linking to others are small things but they go a long way when it comes to showing you care.

Welcome to my blog! I’ve gotten so many new commenters in this post. I love it. 🙂

Beats me! I wish I knew what happened. But, as you said, at least we can bring some of the friendliness back with blogging. The people I “meet” online are more friendly than the majority of the people I meet in real life, that’s for sure!

Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed the post, Liz. I’ll have to check out your blog sometime soon once I’ve caught up on my to-do list. Appreciate the wonderful comment you left me, and I hope this reply finds you doing well!

I love this post and the message you are spreading. We need more of that in the real world and the online world. A little bit of kindness goes a long way. Many people don’t return the kindness but it doesn’t matter…. kindness and being nice expects nothing in return.
Thanks again for a great reminder to everyone…be nice!
Lisa

Once you get past the old man speech talking about the good old days and telling kids to get off his lawn ! I believe that this is simple and powerful advice . I normally don’t go out of my way to talk to others but after this I think I need to be more welcoming

As I was going through this list I was nodding along… yup, uh-huh, doing that… but then I got to the part about promoting a comment. WOW! That;s brilliant sir and I’m so glad you shared that. I need to implement that strategy asap!

I’m always nice to my blogging counterparts… aside from writing good content, blogging “success” is all about community and the relationships in it!

Thanks so much for sharing. I’m learning so much from you and I’m so thankful I was introduced to your blog through Jaime!

Wishing you a fabulous weekend. Best wishes on your big change. That sounds ominous doesn’t it?! Don’t worry, I won’t complain. I rearrange my furniture every couple of weeks, so I’m one who enjoys change.

I know you left another comment or two on the blog earlier, but this is the first one I’m responding to so… Welcome to my blog! I’m so glad to have you here (and to be able to connect you on Twitter)!

I wasn’t on Twitter much (at all) the past few days since I was busy switching the site to its new platform, but I saw you started using the “promoting a comment” technique I talked about. Awesome! That really is one of my favorite strategies. In fact, I’m going to use it right now for this comment you left me… 🙂

I’m glad you enjoyed this post, and I’m very glad it had you nodding along. That’s always awesome to hear. 🙂

Glad Jaime was able to introduce us, too! I hope you had a great weekend, and I hope your week is off to a great start! Talk to you again soon, I’m sure.

Thank you for all the tips here. I actually grew up in the Leave It To Beaver era, and yes, a lot of people in our rural communities were just that nice to one another.

Of course, sadly, if people believed differently than the majority of the community, had different-colored skin, or lived on one side of the tracks or another, they didn’t always feel that nice-to-your-neighbor goodness. But when it worked, it was wonderful.

I still have fond memories of living in a world where people smiled and greeted one another as they walked down the street, excused themselves when they rushed past an older person on the sidewalk, and held doors for anyone laden with packages or managing children.

Over the years, I have employed most of your suggestions, but I will keep a checklist from now on to make sure I’m not missing some. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.

Btw, you do know that Darren Rowse pretty much wrote the (online) book about blogging, don’t you? He may have been a random pick for you, but he is by no means a random blogger and has millions of followers.

Howdy neighbour. Now, this is one post where I shouldn’t feel scared to stick my neck out and say hi.

This really is a great post, and I shushed the children a few times so I could read it slowly and carefully and pay attention. And I tweeted it … and I’m definitely going to implement this. I had started falling into the not-so-nice trap of “don’t link out to anyone because you’ll lose your readers” and I think I really needed THIS reminder on New Year’s Day to be nicer.

So thank you. My blog is rebranding as of today, and I’m making this my #1 resolution – I’ll be nice, share links, say hello to everyone. (And I’ve added you to my Bloglovin’ reading list. I want to keep reading!)

I know I’m late to the party on this one but I’m still playing catch-up.

What a lovely, kind, thoughtful post. I know that there are many soul less people out there who would sell their own grandma for a back link but you’ve just turned that right around in the most gracious way.

I so agree with you. In the same way that I start my emails with “Dear…”

Reading this post has made me look on the ol’ Interwebz as a place where “everybody knows your name.” It’s now a little less of a dog-eat-dog black hatted world.

Between Google wanting better content and you pioneering neighbourliness, the sun is breaking through.

Hello Kevin, Great Tutorial 🙂 This is my first time visit on your Blog. Good design. I am going to write also on Comment area. Before reading your this article, i was missing a lot’s of points for my own Blog I am going to follow these steps for my blog. And thanks again for mention the HERO Bloggers. To be honest, just reading your this article, i become your one of loyal fan 🙂

I saw this post in one of Andrew Warner’s articles and I had to rush over immediately.

Your technique definitely does work from what I have seen so far.
Yeah, I am young, but I know what it is like to be courteous and nice. Here in Nigeria, we try to be good neighbours to each other. We still greet each other while passing, including strangers. Not doing so is considered rude. It is ironical that I have not been doing the same online.

Thanks for this awesome post because like I told Andrew, I have been lagging behind a lot in the social media. Yeah I don’t even know how to use most of them except for facebook. And as for twitter, google+, pinterest and the rest of them, I only go there when I publish a post and I want to share.

That method doesn’t work. It hasn’t worked for me since I started using it, so it is great to find someone give advice on what I can do to make things work better. What makes your post so awesome is that you walk your talk.

Mentioning all those bloggers means you actually interact with them, and it is paying off big time.

I just saved this page (confession). I am a newbie, and I will start connecting with the people you mentioned immediately. I know a couple of them like Harleena, Mi Muba, Donna, Adrienne, Sherman Smith and of course Andrew Warner. But I am going to connect to a whole lot more.

Quick question: I am currently a member of Harleena’s Aha-now ABC community of bloggers. Are there other blogging communities you can recommend for me to join?

Hi Kevin,
I looked for you on LinkedIn, no luck. Got a link? This article and your article on comments that open doors to influential bloggers are both great. I asked about you on LinkedIn because I wanted to make sure I mentioned you in a way that let people connect (without the @ tag, which is awkward on LinkedIn, as are #tags) and still highlight the link to your article. As you know, two links in a single LinkedIn post isn’t the most effective way to post. Thanks again for the articles. I’m sharing them on Twitter and G+ right away–and my LinkedIn. Looking forward to more posts. Just added you to feedly.

Hey Kevin, I just found this post so I may be a few years late in commenting, but I totally agree with the concept of “being nice” because that’s the way I was raised.

Saying “excuse me” when you walk in front of someone who’s studying a row of cereal boxes in the grocery store just isn’t heard anymore after society seemed to get sheep-dipped in an ethos of “in your face” as being the way to behave toward others.